


Paladins of the Caribbean

by Rui6666



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Also everyone is in their mid 20's, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), But basically the Voltron gang goes on vacation to Cuba, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Fluff and Humor, I'll add more tags as i go, M/M, Multi, Pining Keith (Voltron), Slow Burn, Summer Vacation, cuban allura, except Pidge who is a bit younger but you do the math, non-binary Pidge, there will be smut later on most likely
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-20 06:56:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11915535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rui6666/pseuds/Rui6666
Summary: A wise man once said, the best way to heal a broken heart is to gather up all your friends and spend two weeks at the Caribbean sipping margaritas and making bad jokes. But instead of the calm vacation he was expecting, Keith gets to go through a journey of self-discovery where he finds out he may or may not have feelings for his roommate and also he gets to learn some Spanish.





	1. The girlfriend and the wife

**Paladins of the Caribbean**

 

Their moans kept on getting progressively louder, joined by an orchestra of sounds  already familiar; meat slapping against meat, fluids against fluids, and the unavoidable creaking of the bed. 

Keith lay completely still, covered in his own sweat and staring at the huge growing spot on the ceiling (he would have to call the landlord about that). It was the same story every night and his insomnia was slowly starting to bring out the worst in him. He gave three loud knocks on the wall next to his bed and there was silence for a second. However, the boy was immediately met with a furious knock that came from the other side. After that, the lovemaking continued. Keith was almost 100% certain it was the girl who knocked back. Lance would have been too embarrassed to finish having sex after being interrupted like that. His girlfriend, on the other hand… Oh, she was a force stronger than shame. 

 

“How can you live like this? Shouldn’t we talk to him or something?” Keith mumbled into his coffee mug. 

“Don’t even bother.” Hunk shrugged and set his two breakfast plates on the small kitchen table. “Just wear earplugs and think about the fact that Lance would never complain if it were either of us.”

“Well of course I wouldn’t!” Lance stumbled out of his room shirtless, with his pants on backwards and hair that looked like a bird’s nest. “How could I possibly complain about my friends finding love?” He chanted dramatically. “Love makes the world go round! Love could even make Keith look decent for once!”

Keith rolled his eyes and dedicated his full attention to his coffee as he took the first mental note of the day. Fun Lance Fact n°138: Lance always sounds like he’s high when it’s 8 in the morning.

Minutes after, the girl walked out of the room. She looked like she had spent hours getting ready instead of the two minutes she had been awake for. Her clothes looked like a magazine catalogue and her blond hair was fixed perfectly in a ponytail. And then there was her dazzling smile. Keith hated that smile. He hated the girl if he had to be honest. She grabbed a slice of toast from Hunk’s plate, gave Lance a short kiss on the mouth and left the apartment without saying a word. Of course, Lance looked like he had won the lottery, but no matter how hard he tried, Keith couldn’t bring himself to remotely like Nyma. The girl was shallow, had expensive tastes that sucked the life out of his roommate’s bank account, and then there was that uncomfortable feeling in Keith’s stomach every time he saw the two of them together. He assumed this was due to his intense disapproval of the girl, strong enough to give him diarrhea, but it’s not like he could just walk up to Lance and say to his face something like “Hey, your girlfriend makes me want to shit myself”. Instead he considered it would be wiser to shut up, finish his breakfast, and go to work.

 

Keith worked, contrary to popular belief, as a camera assistant in a local TV studio. His job consisted on carrying things, marking the floor with chalk, standing next to the actual camera operator for a considerate amount of hours and bring coffee to a bunch of not-so-important people who thought very highly of themselves. Keith was famous, or rather infamous, amongst his superiors for, and I quote, “ _Constantly commenting on how the script sounds fake and Mothman would never actually say that_ ”; but at the same time everyone had some sort of endearment for this awkward boy who always brought a backpack full of knives, Swiss knives, and other tools that saved the day in more than one occasion.

He secretly dreamed about a Harrison Ford type of story happening to him one day, but in the meantime, he was more than satisfied with his pay-check. Besides, although he would never say it out loud, the best thing about his job was working on shows Lance loved and worshipped and getting to see the look on his face every time Keith hit him with a spoiler.

It was a sort of unspoken duel. Every time Lance got noisy with his girl, Keith would let a spoiler slip. He wasn’t even sure if Lance knew he did it as a revenge, but to be fair, Lance had a pretty one-sided rivalry going on between the two of them for years and Keith hadn’t even been aware of it until they had started living together not so long ago.

 

The shooting had been about as intense as always and Keith found himself again spending extra hours at the set because one actress refused to act without her… something… Keith didn’t really care. It wasn’t his job to pamper that lady. By the time he got home, both his roommates were there. He heard the sound of running water and assumed it was Hunk in the shower. Keith set his keys on the counter and sat next to Lance on the couch. The taller boy didn’t even look at him as he offered Keith a sip of his beer, and with a heat like that in the middle of June, how could Keith say no to a fresh cold beer, even if it was 20% Lance’s saliva at this point?

“How was your day?” Said Keith, kicking his shoes off and setting his feet on the coffee table.

Lance didn’t respond for a while. He took his time finishing the beer before he answered.

“Estrella died.” He said. 

Keith nodded in silence. Lance had a name for every single fish in his aquarium and Keith was never going to learn who was who. Was Estrella the dolphin with one eye or the heterosexual penguin? The world might never know. Unsure what to say, he gave Lance an awkward pat on the shoulder.

“That’s rough, buddy.”

Lance stared at him for a moment and then let out the loudest and most melodic laugh Keith had heard in his life. He kinda wished he knew how to make jokes just so he could make Lance laugh more often, but that was crossing the _Don’t Be Gay_ _For Lance_ line. 

“Hey, by the way,” Lance said when he was done laughing. “Wanna catch some drinks tonight? Just you and I, you know? Lance and Keith, best pals for life?”

Keith was almost going to blush at the indecent invitation but as Lance kept talking he just raised an eyebrow and wondered to himself what kind of trouble was McClain in now.

“What happened to _Friday Night’s at Shay’s_?” Keith asked.

 

 _Friday Night’s at Shay’s_ , as Lance had once baptised it, was like a family tradition in their friend group. Everything started four years ago when Hunk was going on his first date with a cute girl from Keith’s work named Shay. That morning, a very nervous Hunk had thrown up twice and was threatening to start throwing up again as the time of the rendezvous approached. After a lot of begging on Hunk’s side, Lance agreed to go with him to his date and, since he didn’t really feel like third-wheeling, he pretty much forced Keith to go too. 

Let’s not sugarcoat it, the date was bad. Shay got understandably upset about her romantic getaway being invaded by two bickering boys (-2 first date points), and then the night got worse when they ran into two more friends of Hunk who, upon seeing Keith and Lance, didn’t understand they were interrupting a date and decided to tag along. But what really riled her up was the fact that Hunk took her to the cinema (-5 first date points) to watch a movie that was, well, unwatchable (-75 date points). She ranted for so long about it, that before the boys knew it, they were sitting on Shay’s couch watching the original 1978 version of the film they had just watched. At the end of the evening, Hunk and Shay got to have their moment alone, they went on an actual date the following Tuesday and one thing led to another until the whole gang got together every week at Shay’s house to watch some of that good independent and/or European cinema. 

 

“Not today, buddy.” Lance grinned at Keith. “I was feeling more like hanging out with you.”

Keith felt his heart stop and his stomach shrink. Yet Lance kept on talking.

“I get the feeling we don’t spend enough time together just the two of us. So what do you say?”

Keith nodded slightly and the huge grin on Lance’s face made his physical condition get even worse. This was probably the first time Lance was asking him to do anything together _just the two of them_. It’s amazing what a shared beer can do for a friendship. He felt like they were actually bonding and, for a moment there, Keith had managed to forget about Lance’s girlfriend. In fact, he was almost certain Lance had forgotten about her too. 

 

They got to a bar ten minutes away from the apartment and ordered a large portion of spicy chicken wings. Before the conversation could get interesting, Keith felt a cold metallic hand rest against his neck and a very familiar laughter behind him. 

“Chicken wings? How romantic” Shiro smiled as he pulled up a chair and joined the two boys. Seconds after, Pidge got to their table holding way more food that they could fit in their body. 

“Is there no other bar in this city that I have to come here and see you two with my own four eyes?” Pidge grinned and sat next to Lance who chuckled at the awful joke.

“W-what are you guys doing here?” Keith asked, slightly offended. “Did no one go to Shay’s movie night?”

Shiro snorted and Pidge started at him wide eyed.

“Boy, are you thick?”

“What’s going on?” Keith asked again, this time looking at Lance.

Lance shrugged and took a sip from his drink. “Hunk wanted to be alone with Shay. We’re just giving them some space.” 

“Why didn’t you just tell me that!?”

“You’re not precisely the most subtle person around here, ok?” Lance snatched some of Pidge’s french fries. “If I had told you he was going to propose to her you were going to say something and make him feel embarrassed!” 

Keith dropped his half eaten chicken wing to the floor. A proposal. Guess they were already at that age when people do adult things and have their lives 98% figured out. 

There was silence in the table as Keith let the information sink in, and after it was already sunk and settled the four amigos kept eating in silence.

“Ok,” Pidge broke the ice after the longest 15 minutes in history. “If nobody’s going to say it, I will.” 

A pause.

“You guys are a lot less funny when Hunk’s not around.”

Shiro and Keith let out a soft “yeah” underneath their breaths and Lance, who had been nervously wiggling his leg for a while now, let out a loud groan and leaned back on his chair.

“Am I the only one who is dying to know what’s happening right now!?” He yelled a little louder than intended, earning the glare of a very exhausted waitress.

Keith pulled out his phone, also eager to know the developments of the only love life he cared about. “Should we call him?” 

“No!” Shiro panicked and smacked Keith’s phone out of his hand’s and right into the ketchup. He apologised immediately but Keith was too focused on Hunk to care. 

And then, like a gift from heaven, Hunk walked into the bar.

“Hey guys, what did I miss?” He smiled and joined the table.

“So? What did she say?” Shiro asked. Deep down he was the most curious of all. 

“Wait, wait, wait!” Lance yelled, “Don’t tell anything! I have to pee, I’ll be right back, don’t say anything while I’m away.”

Lance rushed to the toilet and his friends, being such wonderful friends, ignored his request entirely and directed all of their attention towards Hunk’s answer.

“Well,” he started with a preoccupying sigh. “She didn’t say no, but she also… didn’t say… yes.” 

Everyone stared at Hunk for a moment unsure what to say or how to take it. After a long second, Hunk continued.

“She got this job offer, right? To work on this movie with some Swedish director she really likes, and it’s going to be a trilogy and they’re shooting one right after the other, and anyway, they’re shooting in Europe so she’s going to spend some time there… like, four, five months? I don’t know… Basically she said we should talk about it properly after she gets back. So yeah. That’s it, that’s the story.”

Shiro gave the boy a soft pat on the shoulder.

“So, you’re just going to have to be a little patient. That’s all.” 

“Yeah, I know. I’m ok, really.” Hunk nodded and started playing with his food absentmindedly. 

This was the Hunk Red Alert. When he played with his food instead of eating it, something was really wrong. Desperate times called for desperate measures and Keith, also known as “Twentynine Cents In My Bank Account Keith”, abandoned all reasoning and yelled out the best idea he had had in months, not considering how impulsive it was.

“Let’s go traveling around Europe too!” 

He sputtered, and was immediately met by the surprised and incredulous reactions of his friends. Keith sat back. Now with a calm voice, he continued making his point. 

“This will be good for you.” He shrugged. “I mean, what else are you gonna do when she leaves? Stare at the wall and think of her?”

Pidge nodded and backed Keith up. “That’s actually a good idea. Take a short vacation and then when she’s back you can share embarrassing Europe stories.” 

“Besides,” continued Keith, “it’ll be fun going on a trip all of us together.” 

“Consider it an over the top bachelor party” Shiro picked up the last chicken wing. “Just us guys… and Pidge.” 

Hunk let out a soft laughter. “Ok! Let’s do it!”

“Let’s do what?”

The gang turned their heads towards Lance, who had finally deigned himself to come back from the bathroom. 

“What? Did I miss anything important?” He asked again.

 

“Lance.” 

Keith knocked on Lance’s bedroom door one more time.

“Lance, come on. You can’t be mad at this forever.”

Lance’s muffled voice replied from inside the room.

“Yes I can.”

“Okay, Obama, get out so we can talk about this.” Hunk joined Keith in his door knocking adventure and the two of them started making something that resembled a beat. 

They were about to start chanting when Lance opened the door wearing his fuzziest pijamas and a pout on his face.

“I can’t believe you guys made plans without me.”

“You were in the bathroom!” Keith replied, exasperated. 

“There was a long line!” Lance screamed back in a rather high pitch and locked himself back in the room.

“Lance, don’t be a baby” Hunk knocked on the door again. “We were including you from the very first moment, you just weren’t there.”

“Oh yeah!?” Lance’s offended voice replied. “Well I’m not going! Enjoy your summer without me!”

At this point Keith was starting to lose it. It was too late in the night to put up with Lance, a grown man, acting like a baby. 

“The hell you’re not coming!” Keith kicked the door with a little bit of unnecessary aggressiveness. “You’re going to start packing right now, and you’re coming on the greatest bonding trip of your life, and you’re gonna fucking like it!”

He was going to kick the door again when Lance slammed it open to reply face to face to the provocations.

“Guess what, asshat! I can’t go!” He threw his arms in the air and took a deep breath. “I’m going to spend the summer with my family in Cuba, which you would know if you had asked, which you didn’t do because you nEVER INCLUDE ME IN YOUR PLANS!”

“Lance, please.” Hunk sighed. “You could have just said so.” 

“Yeah, well, I just did.” Lance pouted again. “Enjoy your brocations without me.” 

“You know, we don’t have to go Europe specifically.” Keith kicked Lance softly on the leg, still a bit in the mood for a fight. “Which you would know, if you ever listened when people speak.”

“Keith’s right, dude.” Hunk shrugged. “A vacation in the Caribbean sounds pretty good to me.”

Lance seemed pleased by the new idea that was now on the table.

“Yeah, it does sound good.”

 

* * *

It was going to be a long day, Keith thought to himself as he got out of the taxi and stared at the airport. Behind him, his friends were making more noise than ever. Between Hunk constantly blabbering “I love you so much” to his phone (he was talking to Shay), Pidge’s parents reading to their kid an entire online article about flight security, and Shiro refusing to be the only one who paid for the taxi, Keith was starting to change his mind on this whole vacation thing. 

Then, everything got worse when Lance arrived. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Consider this an intro to the hell that's about to break lose.
> 
> Also, before anyone says anything, I'm cuban and I'm not making things up. Like 70% of the things that are going to happen to the characters are going to be based on real life experiences so that's going to be funny. 
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading and I'll do my best to update as regularly as I can.


	2. Soap contest and Nudes

Coordinating an entire two week trip between five people via group-chat was a formula for disaster. If it hadn’t been for Shiro’s actual experience with adulthood, the whole idea of taking a vacation together would have been flushed down the toilet like many other plans made on WhatsApp. 

Lucky for the boys, having Shiro around was very comfortable. He made a suggestion and all everyone else had to do was simply agree. After weeks of fighting, two days before the flight, Shiro (making use of his ‘team mom’ privileges) successfully booked a hotel, made reservations at three museums and got Keith a passport with a picture where he didn’t look like a serial killer. The morning of the flight, everything was going just as planned, except for one little setback at the very last minute.

There was a 20% chance Lance had at some point announced in the chat that his girlfriend would be joining them for the summer, but either Keith missed the text between hundreds of messages talking about whether flip-flops were racist, or he did read it and just decided to not take him seriously, thus deleting from his mind all memory of having ever read said text. 

Lance got out of the car, almost in slow motion, sunglasses on, Starbucks in one hand, Hot Blonde™ in the other. For Keith, this was worst-case scenario. He stood still, holding eye contact with a girl whose expression he would never be able to decipher as Lance went on his usual round of hugs and greetings with everyone else.

As the group entered the airport, Keith turned around one last time to longingly stare at the possibility of backing away now, running off to his apartment and staying there for two weeks with his feet on the table living off of nothing but cheese nachos and peace of mind. After all, he wouldn’t be getting any of that for the rest of the summer.

 

A lot of people aren’t fond of airports. Until a few hours ago, Nyma was convinced her city’s airport was the biggest dumpster she had ever set foot in. Then, they landed in Havana. Everything you think you know about shitty travel stations, is nothing compared to the absolute train-wreck this place was. 

Lance walked ahead with confidence, already aware of what to expect. For everyone else, it was like stepping into a war zone. The lines, the eight thousand check ups, and then literally having to wait 2 hours and 45 minutes for all their luggage to come out, and just when they thought they were going to be seeing the light of day, a bunch of young girls in military uniforms showed up out of nowhere to make a routinary health inspection. 

A particularly young girl stood in front of Keith with a warm smile and an awfully large syringe. 

“Hi, Welcome to Cuba. Do you feel well?” 

“Uh… yes?” Keith replied. 

“Ok. Carry on.” She smiled and gestured for the next person to come forward.

“Man,” Keith whispered to Lance as soon as he got to stand a little bit close to him. “That’s not a very efficient way of avoiding epidemics.” 

“Would you prefer to spend two more hours getting checked for a common cold?” Lance winked at him. 

And Keith would have smiled back. He really would have. But a superior force stopped him from lowkey flirting. He wasn’t sure if it was Nyma’s glare burning on the back of his neck or the sudden strong smell of gasoline that slapped him across the face the second he set foot outside of the airport. It was so intense that it was almost nauseating, and the chaos of cars honking loudly and people running around screaming even louder added a lot to the atmosphere, making Keith’s stomach give an extra twist. 

Lance stood in front of the group, happy to assume the role of the leader in this new territory that only he had previously explored. Trying to pull off his best Shiro impression, he spoke.

“Ok guys, my cousin Carlos is somewhere around here waiting for us with a car. We’re not all gonna fit so you guys get in with him, he’ll take you to the hotel, and Nyma and I can catch a taxi and go straight to my hous-“

Lance’s speech was abruptly interrupted by a very loud screech that came from quite a distance.

“LANCE! MIJO!” A middle aged woman in a dress that was not age appropriate was running towards Lance at an amazing speed. “Que grande que estás, por favor! Dale un beso a tu tía!”

“Tia Magali!” Lance’s face lit up in a smile and then, and only then, the rest of the group determined this woman to be non threatening. 

After a very long and emotional hug, the woman made it her business to hug and kiss every single one of Lance’s friends. 

“Hello!” She said with a broken english and a heavy accent. “My name is Magali.” 

“Nice to meet you.” Shiro greeted her with a polite smile.

She stared at him for a moment until finally she nodded and replied. “Hello. My name is Magali.”

Lance started laughing when a young man, only a few years older than him, approached them. 

“Sorry, my mom is still starting to learn english.” He said, and proceeded to greet everyone also in a very effusive way. 

“This is my cousin Carlos.” Lance introduced him to the rest of the group. “He’s a DJ.” 

“You guys are gonna love my new mixtape.” With a bright smile, Carlos offered to take Pidge and Nyma’s luggage and led everyone to where his car was parked.

The good news for Lance’s pocket was that Carlos had shown up with two cars to fit him and his friends. He had no idea where his cousin had gotten the second one, but by now he knew it was better not to ask. The not-so-good news is that, despite having two cars, it was still not enough space because somehow Carlos thought it was a good idea to bring his entire family along. His twin daughters, in particular.

Ana and Ibelis were two bright eight year old girls who adored Lance more than anything in the world. Or at least they adored the attention Lance always gave them. They ran out of the car to hug him and tell him everything about whatever kids their age were into these days. Lance, of course, was delighted. He loved children and he constantly bragged about being every kid’s favorite relative. That all changed, however, the second Ana looked up and saw Keith. The child, promiscuous in a way, had gotten to that age where girls are all about boys who look like characters from Twilight or edgy Deviantart OC’s. In the purest of ways, it was love at first sight. The moment Ana held on to Keith’s arm, there was no force of nature that could get her to let go. Keith, of course, was heavily suffering all of this. He was not good with children and he was even worse with children who only spoke Spanish, and this one was talking to him non-stop.

“Don’t worry,” Lance flashed a smile in his direction when he noticed Keith was on the verge of a mental breakdown. “She’ll get over you in two days when she finds someone better.” 

Carlos tried his best to get Ana’s attention, but he was failing miserably. 

“Ibelis, get your sister.” He finally sighed in defeat, bestowing the power of his authority upon his other child. 

Ibelis looked at her father with a well earned superiority. 

“I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative.” She said in a deadpan voice and got inside Magali’s car, where Shiro, Hunk and Pidge were already settled. 

“Aight, Keith.” Lance sighed “You ride with us.” 

Keith’s day was getting progressively worse by the minute when he found himself sitting in a dangerously old car with a hyperactive child on one side and Nyma, out of all people, on the other. She looked at him mockingly.

“Looks like you’re gonna get lucky” She teased.

“Nyma, don’t be gross.” Keith grunted. 

“You’re gross.” She pulled out her tongue at him and ignored him entirely for the rest of the ride.

 

They hadn’t been on the road for ten minutes when Keith noticed a heavy weight settle on his arm. At some point Ana had fallen asleep so deeply that for a second there Keith thought she was dead. Also, even though he would later feel awful about this, the first thing he felt when the thought came to his mind was an overwhelming sense of relief. 

“Maybe we should drop by the house and leave her there before we take Keith to the hotel.” Lance suggested when he noticed Ana was far gone. “Is that ok with you, Keith?”

“Uh, sure.” Keith said.

A part of him was dying to know what Lance’s house looked like. He had seen it in pictures, but that was nothing compared to actually being there, feeling the warmth of his family, the smell of his mom’s meals, or simply standing inside the same walls that framed so many of Lance’s memories. 

As they entered the city, it felt like slowly traveling back in time to the more aesthetic era of mid twentieth century. Sure, the roads were bumpy and filled with holes and the houses looked like they were going to fall apart with the next heavy breeze, but Keith was delighted with the architecture, the colors, the people who crossed the streets without looking and still avoided getting hit by the cars. Every single thing was so drastically different from what he was used to that he couldn’t help by stare in awe at the most insignificant details.

Nyma, on the other hand, was feeling a lot less impressed by the looks of it all. Rolling down the window had been her worst mistake that day. The only thing worse than the intense smell of gasoline inside the car, was the even more intense smell of garbage  and dust that came from some of the streets they passed. Lance, riding shotgun, was having a very enthusiastic conversation in Spanish with his cousin, both of them screaming at the top of their lungs trying to raise their voices above the volume of the music. Needless to say, the music was not of Nyma’s taste. She had been raised with the classical sounds of Drake and Rihanna and was in no way accustomed to this so-called Romeo Santos and other similar individuals with their foreign noises. The more they approached the center of Havana, the worst Nyma felt. Going through Havana Vieja was like visiting a city after it had been devastated by a war. Driving became progressively more difficult too. Everyone just walked in the middle of the street like cars weren’t a thing and now that she was getting a closer look at the people who passed by her window she was starting to notice how everyone looked so… poor. She looked at young girls standing on a corner and she couldn’t guess whether the girl was a hooker or just trying to cross the street. And making eye contact with old people was just prohibited. It made her feel things. Like empathy or pity or any other feeling that might push her into doing humanitarian work one day, and that was really not her style.

Eventually the car pulled over. Carlos got out and took a very asleep Ana in his arms. 

“I’ll be right back.” He said. 

He stood in front of a building and started screaming at a balcony on the fourth floor. After a while, someone dropped a key from the skies and Carlos picked it up as best as he could while holding a child. 

Nyma was starting to feel really sick. She got out of the car to get some fresh air when suddenly she noticed something on the floor that pulled a terrified screech out of her.

“Babe, are you ok?” Lance opened his door.

“W- What the hell is this!?” Nyma pointed at a dead pigeon that was casually lying on the sidewalk, chest ripped open and heart missing. 

“Ah… that’s a dead pigeon.” Lance replied.

“I can see that! Why is it dead!?” Nyma was getting paler by the second.

“Well… It’s uh… it’s Santeria” Lance scratched the back of his head. “People use it to do witchcraft and stuff… just ignore it.”

The girl couldn’t help but gag at the sight. For a moment Lance was starting to fear she might faint, and even Keith got slightly concerned about her wellbeing.

“Lance… can we talk for a second?” She muttered. “In private?”

They walked a few steps away from the car and although Keith could still see them through the rearview mirror he couldn’t hear what they were saying. He sat in silence staring at Nyma’s gestures and he could only assume they were having an argument. 

Carlos walked out of the building, car keys in his hand, and Nyma didn’t hesitate to approach him.

“Excuse me, let me use your bathroom.” She asked as politely as she knew how.

“Sure thing, come with me.” Carlos smiled and reentered the building with her.

Lance silently got back inside the car. This time he sat at the backseat where Nyma had been until now. Keith stared at the boy beside him through his reflection on the rearview mirror. Lance was playing with his fingers, strangely serious, and there was silence for a few minutes that felt like an eternity.

“So, uh…” With a deep breath, Lance broke the ice. “Nyma’s not feeling well.” 

Keith nodded, still not daring to look at Lance directly. 

“She just got her period and she always gets a little nauseated during her first days, so yeah.” 

 “She’s gonna have an awful time being pregnant.” Keith tried being the one to make jokes in order to lighten up the mood, but his humour wasn’t well received and Lance’s expression didn’t change.

“Look, man…” He threw his head back and looked at Keith. “I hate to ask you this… but she says she wants to stay at the hotel. And you know how she gets when she wants something… Could you… Do you mind if she spends the night in your room? And you can stay at my house with me… Just for tonight, I promise. Tomorrow morning we’ll figure something out but right now she’s really busting my b-“

“Lance,” Keith placed his hand on Lance’s knee as a sign of reassurance. “It’s cool. We can do that.”  

Lance looked at him like Keith had just taken a bullet in the knee for him.  

“Bro…” He said softly, and Keith’s heart skipped a beat at the very romantic action of being called ‘bro’ for the first time. “I owe you one, my man. You’re the real MVP here, Keith. Even though you act like an asshole and look like an asshole, you’re actually such a good friend…”

Keith didn’t know if Lance was being really overdramatic or if he was actually on the verge of tears. As far as he was concerned, anyone who spent more than a month in a relationship with Nyma came out of it a broken man, and Lance would need all the help he could get managing her. 

“You owe me one.” Keith teased. “And I know exactly what I’m gonna ask for.”

“Keith, for the very last time, I am not helping you set up an actual fight club at the parking lot behind the kindergarten. That’s just… wrong.”  

“That’s not what I was gonna say…” He said in a very betraying voice tone. 

Just when the mood seemed to be a little bit lighter, Carlos and Nyma came back. She got on the front seat without saying a word and for the rest of the ride, the only sound  that could be heard was the fire of Carlos’ mixtape.

 

 

Lance’s house was in a quiet street at the outskirts of El Vedado, which is kinda like the rich people part of Havana. The building had been baptised as ‘Jabón de los Milagros’, which literally meant ‘Soap of miracles’.  

“Cause there was a lottery a bunch of years ago, you see?” Lance explained as the car turned around the corner. “This soap company put prizes in the soap bars, and most of the prizes were sheets and spoons and stuff, but some soaps came with a house. Kinda like a Willy Wonka golden ticket kind of thing. There’s a bunch of soap villas around these parts.” 

Keith listened carefully to the explanation, unsure of what he found more captivating, the fact that a soap company gave away houses or the way Lance gesticulated when he told a story.

“So this lady, I think her name was Margarita, won one of these houses back in her day, and she was really good friends with my grandma. Anyway, they had a huge fight because there was a rumour about Margarita being my grandpa’s side chick. They never saw her again until one day, after 30 years, my grandma got this letter from her where she explained everything. She said that she was actually gay for my grandma, that she had always secretly loved her, and that since she was moving to the US with her children she wanted my grandma to have the house as a memory of her.” 

“Dude…” Keith was speechless. “Did you make this up?” 

Lance laughed. “Man, the letter had nudes attached. Like an actual old-timey portrait but naked.”  

“Grannies are wild.” 

 

 

Carlos parked the best he could and the boys didn’t even have the time to get out of the car when they were met by a huge ruckus from inside the house.

A girl that Keith recognised from pictures as Lance’s older sister was the first to run up to them. She hugged her brother tightly and the moment she saw Keith her eyes lit up in indecipherable ways.  

(Now, keep in mind this entire exchange was happening in a very quick-paced Spanish that Keith was not understanding at all.)

 “Yotuel! It’s a boy!” She screamed. 

“Wait, what!?” A teenage boy ran after her.

 “It’s a boy! I win, give me my twenty!”  

“There’s no way that’s a boy, Elianna! Just look at that hair!” Yotuel tried to fight back. 

“What are you guys talking about?” Lance asked. 

Before Lance was able to get his answers his mom ran out to see him, apron half tied and a soup ladle still in hand. The hug lasted forever and Lance couldn’t stop himself from letting out a few tears. Keith, on his side, didn’t even have the time to feel awkward in the situation. He counted at least seven different people hugging him and being genuinely happy to meet him. The last to come to him was Yamila, Lance’s mom. She took a good look at him and smiled. 

“Pay up, Yotuel.” She said to her youngest son who would soon learn the meaning of the word ‘mullet’.  

She led the family inside as she asked Keith a bunch of questions none of the which he could understand, and Lance was torn between translating them or just answering them himself. Things got really amusing after a while when Keith realised nobody in the room could pronounce his name and everyone was trying really hard at the same time. Imagine 6/7 people all trying to say ‘Keith’ over and over and never quite getting there. So far he counted someone calling him ‘Keef’, ‘Keys’, ‘Kayth’ and, God forbid, “Oh, I get it, his name is Christ!” 

Lance was having the time of his life despite the fact that his name also had a very different pronunciation when his family said it. Suddenly, Yamila rose up and made hand gestures at Keith to follow her. She took him to a bedroom at the end of the hall and pointed at all his luggage as if to say this would be his room. Keith, however, immediately noticed two things. One: the double sized bed; and two: Lance’s stuff.  

“Keith, there seems to be a really funny misunderstanding here.” Said Lance, who was standing behind him. “My family seems to think you’re my girlfriend. Cause when I told them I was coming with my girlfriend, I may have used a word that didn’t include the ‘girl’ part. I was pretty gender neutral about it and they’ve been making bets.” 

Keith didn’t even have to reply. He turned back to face the taller boy with his most intense killer stare. 

“Ok, I’m gonna get this cleared up right away.” Lance smiled and turned to his mom. “So mom! Here’s something really funny!” 

Yamila didn’t seem to find the story funny at all. As Lance explained what had happened, she looked at him like she was already way too tired of his shit, and they had barely spent five minutes together. When Lance finished his monologue with an awkward ‘ta-daa’, Yamila gave Keith a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. She grabbed all of Lance’s belonging with incredible strength and threw them out on the hallway. 

“Lance, me cago en tu madre.” She cursed and smacked her son on the head. 

Keith stared at Lance for a second, trying to understand what had just happened, and Lance couldn’t find a better answer than to just laugh at the ridiculous situation.  

“You’re her son now.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to update, this week has been pretty intense. 
> 
> So I just wanted to thank all of you who have read, commented and left Kudos! It really means a lot and yeah I just wanted to say thank you! The third chapter is already started and I'll try to have it up soon, so until then! <3
> 
>  
> 
> PS: the spanish sentences translated:
> 
> "Que grande que estás, por favor! Dale un beso a tu tía!"  
> "You're so big, omg! Give your aunt a kiss!"
> 
> "Lance, me cago en tu madre."  
> Ok now, this is an expression, it's just your typical swearing and it has no english equivalent I guess? but the literal translation would be 'I shit on your mom' so that's pretty funny I guess


	3. Cocktails and Confessions

The hotel wasn’t far from Lance’s house. As a matter of fact, it was at a walking distance. You went straight for fifteen minutes headed towards the sea and right before bumping into the Malecón you found a huge luxurious building that looked photoshopped between the old dirty mall and the collapsed building. 

Carlos stopped the car next to a long line of taxis, coco-taxis and the Almendrones, which is like Cuba’s version of Uber (and has existed since far before Uber was a thing). 

“Aren’t you gonna help me with my suitcases?” Nyma asked as she got out of the car.

“Sorry, miss. Only tourists are allowed inside the hotel.” Carlos replied. 

Nyma looked offended on his behalf. “Does that count as racist?”

She gave it a thought and decided it was a stupid prohibition. Snapping her fingers, she ordered Carlos to get out of the car and pick up her luggage. 

“Listen to me, Carlos. I don’t care how your people run their businesses, but I am an American, so we’re going to do things the American way.” 

Nyma walked inside the hotel like she was some sort of celebrity. Carlos ran behind her, dragging a ridiculous amount of luggage and rolling his eyes at the girl he had found himself stuck with. If the American Way was being a spoiled brat and abusing the kindness of her non-American host then fuck America, he guessed.  

Nobody from the hotel staff even flinched when Carlos walked through the door. Little did Nyma know that, although the prohibition for Cubans to enter spaces meant for tourists was real back in the day, now it was all water under the bridge and Carlos was just trying to escape from his bellboy duties. 

Shiro was exploring the lobby when he spotted Nyma giving Carlos a tip and heading straight towards her room, or what should have been Keith’s room. He decided to not give it any thought. After Pidge and Hunk had gotten a good look at the hotel (and after Pidge saw there was Wi-Fi in the lobby), they immediately abandoned all plans they had with Shiro for the day and indulged themselves in their newly found commodities.

Pidge had done all the math. Sure, it was an expensive place, but at least they had the security of knowing they wouldn’t be spending a week of their lives living in a dumpster. Because, although Lance intended on staying for two whole weeks, not everyone was able to do the same. Pidge had to go back to school and Hunk had to go back to work. Keith had barely managed to scrape enough money to go on this trip and he was pretty much relying on Shiro acting like his mom and paying for a bunch of his meals, but now that he was staying at Lance’s we can write him down as a ‘maybe’. Last but not least, Shiro was a full fledged adult who made a decent salary and could afford a decent vacation, not to mention, his boss kinda owed him one. 

Shiro’s relationship with his boss was pretty regular until it all went downhill at a particularly unfortunate retirement party. His boss, a frustrated stand-up comedian wannabe, had had a few extra glasses of wine when he decided to improvise an act. After a few mediocre jokes, he let out an inappropriate comment about Shiro’s missing arm. The crowd went silent. Everyone took it way more seriously than Shiro himself, and the man spent the following four months insisting that he wanted to make it up to him. After this trip all would be left behind, so as a way to celebrate his last days of having the upper hand (haha, get it?), Shiro decided to explore the neighbourhood and treat himself to a nice, cold, Piña Colada.

He walked along the Malecón, breathing in the mid-day breeze and trying to ignore the cruel sun. After this drink, nothing about the difficult weather would faze him. And so, the man of simple needs found himself walking for two hours, entering every single establishment he could find, and leaving almost immediately after the waiter or waitress told him in an apologetic voice. “Sorry, sir. We’re all out of pineapple juice.” 

Sweaty and defeated, Shiro returned to the hotel. He saw Pidge and Hunk on one of the couches by the lobby, glued to their phones trying to connect to the internet, but he was feeling too humiliated to talk to his friends. With one last string of lingering hope, he pressed the button for the last floor on the elevator and headed towards the pool’s bar. If they didn’t have pineapple juice there either, he would just jump into the pool and drown to death. 

And this is where Shiro, a man who had never been religious, became convinced of the existence of a higher being. He heard the angels sing and he wasn’t sure if it was because the waitress had confirmed they had Piña Colada, or because said waitress was the most beautiful woman the planet had ever spit out of its core. 

“Is everything ok?” She asked with a soft smile when she noticed Shiro had been staring at her with his mouth open for a creepy amount of time.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I just really wanted that Piña Colada…” He laughed “My name is Shiro, by the way. I’m staying at the fourth floor.” 

“Nice to meet you. I’m Allura.” She winked at him and headed towards the following table turning around one last time to meet Shiro’s eyes. “But you can call me Cinderella cause I practically live in this kitchen.” 

 

 

“So, I’ve been meaning to ask…” Allura leaned over the counter and closer to Shiro.

He had conveniently shown up five minutes before closing time and now, with nobody around, these two individuals were enjoying a calm and pleasant conversation.

“What happened to your arm?” She asked.

Shiro laughed and leaned in too, as if to share an important secret.

“Well,” he started. “I was abducted by aliens who wanted to take over the universe and they replaced my arm with this thing. It’s actually a highly dangerous weapon.” 

Allura started laughing and Shiro wished he could record the sound and set it as his Monday alarm.

“Come on, tell me the truth.” 

“You’re not ready for it. We have to be at least level 24 friends if you want to unlock my tragic backstory.” 

“Oh, I see. And how exactly do I get to a level 24 friendship with you?”

“What time does your shift end tomorrow?”

 

 

It must have been around midnight when a soft knock on the door woke Keith up. He considered getting up, but by now he was way too comfortable so instead he just threw a shoe at the door, a gesture which could roughly be translated into “come in”. 

Lance walked inside the room holding a blanket and a pillow and smiling like a small child who had just done something he was bound to get in trouble for.

“Mind if I sleep on your floor?” He asked.

Keith just stared at him in silence and grunted a soft “do whatever you want” at the other boy.

To sum things up, after discovering her son had changed the plans last minute with no warning, Yamila had decided the fair thing to do was to ban him to the living room floor for the night. Sure, it was her son who she only got to see once every two years, but in this house there were rules and maybe he should have thought about it before inconveniencing everyone. It’s not like she was going to spend hours rearranging the rooms just because Lance couldn’t get a hold of his own girlfriend.

“There’s no AC in the living room.” Said Lance, settling his pillow on the floor by Keith’s bed and making himself comfortable.

“Lance,” Keith replied, voice still drowsy and tired.

“What?”

“Just… just get in the bed, man…” 

Lance contemplated the option for about half a second. He jumped on the bed almost kicking Keith on the head and made his best effort to settle down leaving an appropriate amount of space between them. Keith was starting to regret his offer as he patiently waited for the “no homo” to make its stellar appearance in the conversation. Instead, Lance just turned to look at him and smiled softly.

“Are you comfortable like this?” He asked.

And then Keith’s own denial betrayed him into acting like a Straight Boy™. 

“I’m good,” he replied, “but if you even so breathe in my direction I’m calling the police.” 

 

 

It was 1am and this was a huge mistake. Keith stared at the ceiling, more awake and aware of his surroundings than he had ever been. He tried his best not to look at Lance but let’s just say he could have tried harder. All he could see was the taller boy’s back, the broad back of a swimmer, and Keith immediately looked away. The good part of the situation is that Lance was not talking for once in his life and he was breathing so he wasn’t dead either. That was good. Except it really wasn’t. The more he thought about it the worse it became. After a few minutes, the silence of the night had been replaced by the loud beating of his heart, so loud that Keith wondered if Lance would be able to hear it, and this thought only made the beat stronger and faster. 

 

 

It was 2:30am and Keith had given up on the idea of ever sharing a bed with another person ever again. The thing about sleeping next to people, or being awake next to sleeping people, is that you get to witness every single one of their farts. 

One of them was so particularly loud that Lance woke up a little bit startled. Still drooling and disoriented, he turned around to check if Keith was still sleeping. Keith closed his eyes and pretended to be unconscious while holding back his laughter. Not an easy task. After a few seconds that felt like hours to Keith, he was unable to retain a snort and the next thing he felt was Lance’s cold foot kicking him softly on the leg. This just made him laugh harder.

“You piece of shit!” Lance whispered. “You were awake this whole time!”

Keith tried to get a hold of himself before answering but he ended up muttering gibberish between laughs. 

“You sound like a whale having an orgasm.” Lance kicked him again.

“Yeah? Well you sound like… like, uh…” Keith had to stop and think for a very long minute. “You sound like an angel taking a shit! Ha! How’s that one, Lance!?”

He was really proud of himself for a moment there, until he let his own words sink in.

“Keith, my dude…” Lance snorted. “That’s gross… and kinda gay.”

“Pffff… You’re gay.” 

“No, I’m bi. _You’re_ gay.”

“…”

“…”

“Yeah… I am.”

 

 

The clock ticked 2:45am. Two boys stared at the ceiling, each of them at the furthest possible edge of the bed. 

“I can’t sleep.” Said Keith.

“Neither can I.” Said Lance.

And there was silence for a while.

 

 

4:32am.

“…Anyway, my mom, my sister, and I were literally the only ones there. Just three people, but the cinema lady still played the movie for us. Thing is, there were two chairs. In an entire cinema, there were only two chairs.”

Keith had started to get sleepy a while ago, but listening to Lance’s childhood stories was better than any rest he could possibly get. 

“So what did you do?” He asked.

Lance shrugged. “What would you have done? I duelled my sister for a chair.” 

“Dude…”

“She beat me up so bad… I didn’t even want a chair after she was done with me. I literally couldn’t sit.” 

Maybe it was because he was too tired to laugh, but Keith looked at Lance with one of his rare fond smiles and the other boy seemed to notice cause he looked away slightly embarrassed. There was an awkward moment of silence until Keith finally asked a question he had been meaning to ask for a really long time.

“How come your family hasn’t moved with you?” 

Lance stared at him with a serious expression and then turned so he was lying on his back. 

“It’s not easy getting out of here, you know?” He said. “There’s a lot of paperwork involved. Some relatives in the US helped my father get a job and I was able to go with him because I got a scholarship. And even that wasn’t easy. I barely saw my parents for that entire year. I was in school all day and when I got out my friends’ parents picked me up and let me eat at their houses because mine were at the embassy signing documents and whatever else. I don’t really know how these things work but there’s a lot of papers and it’s a real bitch. Also, you gotta wait for months to get a stamp and when the day comes they tell you to come another day ‘cause they’re out of ink. And then, after I left, the plan was to bring the rest of the family with us, but then my sister got married and my mom’s visa kept on being denied. They told her she had better chances if she divorced my father and married him again than by following the regular procedures. But I think she never really wanted to leave. My family’s situation is pretty good compared to most people here. Sure, it would be better over there, but my mom probably doesn’t think it’s worth it.”

“It must be hard leaving your whole life behind you.” Keith hadn’t realised at which point he had moved so close to Lance that his head was resting next to his shoulder. Lance, however, didn’t seem to mind.

“It is.” Lance took a deep breath. “Sometimes…” He made another pause. “You know, sometimes I think it would be for the best if I didn’t come back here at all.” 

Keith stayed in silence waiting for Lance to keep going. There was nothing he could say so he just placed his arm over Lance’s stomach. Maybe that was too much, he thought. He tried taking his arm back, embarrassed and self conscious, but Lance had taken his hand and was now playing with his fingers absentmindedly. 

“I know it’s really selfish,” He continued. “but it’s just so hard for me to be here. It’s all so different from the life I have, and every time I come my mom has a bunch of relatives over to see me, and I always act like I know exactly who they are but I don’t remember meeting most of them. And I bring stuff for everyone but I’m always secretly terrified that I might have missed someone important. Then I meet my old friends, my friends from elementary school. They treat my like I have always been a part of the gang but every time I come over we have less and less in common. Not in a matter of tastes, though. I mean, we like the same video games and music and stuff, but these are entirely different people who have lived lives so different from mine. Their way of thinking, their way of acting… and to them I must seem like a spoiled privileged brat.” At this point, his voice started cracking up. “But nothing compares to the feeling of having to leave. Saying good bye to my mom… even if I know we can talk on the phone any time we want… She looks at me as if we would never see each other again, and it really breaks my heart to leave her behind. It’s the same awful feeling in my stomach every time I come and I don’t know how many more times I’ll be able to handle it until it kills me. So, just to make it worse, I get on the plane and spend the whole flight putting up with myself thinking that it would be better if I never came back. And every time that happens, I hate myself a little bit more.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sssoooo things got a little dark at the end but don't worry the next chapter is all sunshine and memes!
> 
> Anyway, I'm sure you're all well aware of it, but hurricane Irma struck Cuba pretty hard and it hasn't been easier on Florida either. So yeah, I just take a moment to ask you to keep the Caribbean islands in your prayers. The damage won't be easy to recover from. And if you're from anywhere near Florida, stay safe and take good care of yourself. 
> 
> Last but not least, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who's commented and left kudos! You guys make my day a little bit brighter <3 
> 
> See you next update!


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